Where It Began
by insomniaddict24601
Summary: The relationship between Jerry and Theresa has always intrigued me. Primarily their backstory. This story goes along with the cannon and I think it's pretty well written and totally worth the half hour or so you will spend reading it...but that's just my opinion. I can guarantee it's cute and sappy and fluffy but also totally deep and profound. Read it, I dare you.
1. Chapter 1

I am going to regret this. It might be in a few hours. Or days. Or maybe even years. But it will happen. Over and over, I'll look back on today as the greatest mistake of my life. The day where it all went wrong. The day when I could have had it all, but I chose to give everything up. For a girl.

"Jerry Russo?" I hear my name being called by the judge.

"Yes?" I ask, trying to convince everyone in the courtroom that I had been paying attention and had heard everything that was just said. The judge adjusts his wire-rimmed glasses and peers down from the bench, addressing me. It makes for a rather creepy image. The overhead lights reflect on the lenses and the glare manages to obscure my view of his pupils. Instead, all I see are two shiny white disks. Which, now that I think about it, is preferable to seeing his actual eyes. This man is not an attractive specimen, I can tell you that. Add to this his greasy over-comb and lack of oral hygiene, and you've got a face that most people don't want less than a mile away from them when they're about to make one of the biggest decisions of their life.

"Your request has been approved by the council. It is exactly-" he pauses to study the comically large clock on the opposite wall. "five thirty three. At this time tomorrow, all magic will be denied of you and your title of 'The Family Wizard' shall be turned over to your brother. Your wand will be confiscated and all access to the lair will be terminated. These are the conditions of your request, correct?"

Yes.

Yes, those are the conditions.

I had seen them written out.

I had agreed to them.

But hearing it spoken aloud, by this grotesque symbol of authority, finally put meaning behind them. I am about to give up the one thing I had been striving for my entire life. The thing that I had achieved, after a nine-hour-long wizard competition. Am I wasting my life? Wasting my powers? Do I even have the right to anoint my wizarding powers to my brother, who lost the competition? Who hadn't given a damn during training? Who I know will do nothing but misuse magic? And this is all so that I can have a chance with a girl who I haven't even been dating for more than a few months. The insanity of it all finally smacks me in the face.

"Yes, Your Honor." I hear the words come out of my mouth, but I feel detached from my body. As if I hadn't willed myself to say them. Maybe I even willed myself _not_ to say them. But something inside of me is still fighting for the irrational fairytale ending I dreamt of, and that side just one.

I'm not completely insane, right?

I know she likes me. A lot. I don't think she loves me, but that can always change. I guess if I've found someone who likes me, I should hang on to her. At least that's what my mom said. According to her, I should take anything I can get, because with my looks, I won't get much.

I think she was joking, but you never know.

People start moving around me and the judge stands up to get a drink. I blink back to reality and realize that I'm done. I can go back to my dorm now. I'll have to face Theresa sooner or later. And my parents. Oh god. They're going to kill me.

I pull out my wand and flash back to the family lair, for what is probably the last time. I try to commit to memory every detail. The blinding light. The drop you feel, as if you just plunged off the edge of the Empire State. The metallic taste of electricity in your mouth. And the then being jolted back to reality. Like an elevator coming to a stomach-churning stop at your floor.

I can feel the rug beneath my feet and I can smell the dust in the air, but I don't want to open my eyes. I just want to stand here, in the family lair, and never leave.

I don't want to close the door behind me, knowing that the next time I open it, it will be nothing but a freezer.

I don't want to face my family. I don't want to look my father in the eyes when I tell him that I'm throwing away eighteen years of his wizard training down the drain and handing my powers over to my incompetent brother.

Maybe if I just freeze time, while I still can. I can live out the rest of my life in a frozen world, hopping about on one foot. Yeah, that's a great plan. Who am I kidding? I can't take this back. What's done is done. In 24 hours, I'll be a mortal and that's that. I need to start embracing it.

Screw it. I'll embrace it later. For now, I'd like to continue standing here with my eyes shut so I can wallow in my misery.


	2. Chapter 2

"I gave up my wizarding powers."

My father is inside the sub shop when I tell him. The lights are off, but the streetlights are streaming in though the windows. He has a mop in one hand and the other is in his hair, pushing it back from his forehead. He still has his apron on, although the store has been closed for nearly a half hour. The floor around him is wet from the mop, glistening in the light of the street. As my words settle in, he stops. His hands come down to his sides. Everything is silent and I wonder if perhaps he hasn't heard me. Then he slowly turns around. The light from outside is shining on one side of his face, but the rest is enshrouded in darkness. His lips are a flat line across his jaw. He opens his mouth.

"What?"

Expressionless. He's usually such an expressive man and it's rather jarring to watch him have such a small reaction. His eyes are trained on me. They're narrowed. Just slightly. I tap each of my fingers to my thumb, one after another, counting in my head. One two three four three two one. Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap. When I'm calm enough to speak, I try to get my point across logically.

"The Wiz Council is going to pass them on to Kelbo tomorrow." I stop talking as his eyes narrow further and his fists tighten. He swallows hard. It's an audible gulp. But not one of fear. It sounds as if he swallowed his anger down. I know for a fact that it'll come right back up in a minute or two.

"You're not joking." His words are carefully pronounced and his voice is level. I can see his struggle to remain calm and collected.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

The clicking of heels can be heard coming down the staircase. My mother is softly humming to herself as she descends into the sub shop. She stops when she sees us. Her face takes on an expression of concern when she sees my father.

"What's going on?" she asks.

This isn't how I want her to find out. I want to tell her. Privately. So I can plan out what I'll say. Not this. This isn't how it is supposed to happen. My father speaks up and I've lost my chance. And he's lost his battle. I can hear the anger as it slowly fights past his gag reflex and he vomits it out in my mother's direction. No. This is not how I want it to go at all.

"Jerry's telling me that he gave up his powers!" His words bite. Every single one. They're spoken towards my mother but I know the sting was directed towards me. My mothers brow wrinkles in confusion. She descends the last two steps with an echoing "click-click" and then hurries to my fathers side, where he feels she belongs. Their faces are so different. My mother's is confused and disappointed, while it's safe to say that my father is glaring daggers at me.

"Jerry, is this true?" she asks me. Her eyes search mine and they move back and forth, studying my face, reading it left to write as if the explanation was somehow written on my forehead.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I know you're disappointed. But you should know that I-"

"How could you do this?" my father interrupts, and he is almost yelling now.

"Trust me. I thought it through. I know how big of a decision it was." I feel like a child again, trying desperately to explain myself in the judging eyes of my parents. They're both silent. My mother breaks eye contact and becomes terribly interested in a scratch on the linoleum floor. I can hear him breathing. That's all I can hear. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. He's mad as hell now.

"No." is all my father says.

"What?"

He looks up. "No. I'm not letting this happen. We're going to go before the Wiz Council and ask them to return the powers to you. I'm not going to let you be this irresponsible. Come on." He has his hand around my wrist and is tugging persistently. I stay rooted where I am.

"No. I've made my decision and you need to respect that." I say, surprised by my even tone, and I pull loose of his grasp, bringing my wrist back to my side. He is fuming now.

"No! _You_ need to respect _me_. I'm your father and I will tell you what you will and will not do and you will listen! Do you understand?" He is literally all up in my face, inches away, but I stand my ground and refuse to let my face betray my fear.

"I can't take them back. The court said it was final. You know as well as I do that the matter's closed."

"Not here, it isn't. When I'm through with you-" My mother tugs on his arm.

"Hank! Stop it! We need to sit down and talk about this like adults. This is ridiculous." She is close to tears. I've upset her. This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. My father swings his arm around, shaking my mother off it and throwing her off balance so her hip hits the table that is next to her. She winces and I apologize a thousand times over with my eyes. She stares back, never faltering as my father rages on.

"Rose, what's ridiculous is that he would disregard all my years of training him and give up everything we blessed him with."

"You didn't bless me with powers. That's a load of bull crap. I studied. For years. And I trained. And I worked hard. I _earned_ the title of Family Wizard. I _earned_ it and I have every right to give it away."

I try to calm myself down. I am not my father. I will not yell. He, on the other hand, is struggling more and more to keep from lashing out. He takes a step away from me and stops, unsure of what to do. He looks conflicted, but it is well masked by the raging anger. I stare into my mother's eyes, focusing on them, and not the sound of the chair rattling as he knocks it to the floor. Focusing on the shining tears in her eyes, and not the sound of my father, storming out of the room and slamming the kitchen door as he goes.

I break my gaze and sit down at one of the many tables. My mother joins me. Her lips are pursed together and trembling slightly, but she refuses to let a tear fall. Her hand fumbles around under the table until it finds mind. I hold her hands tight and wait. After a few minutes, she speaks.

"Jerry, please just tell us why you did this?"

Why I did this. Why did I do this? Theresa. They don't know about Theresa yet. But the longer I think, the more okay I feel about it. I release her hand and pick up a packet of sugar, fiddling with it as I speak.

"Why I did it is my business and my business only. You don't need to know. It doesn't change the fact that it was my decision. I only stopped by to tell you. Not to get your opinion." The words sound harsh coming out of my mouth, but I can't take them back. And I can't disagree with them. My doesn't appear too hurt by them. She reaches across the tabletop and takes the sugar packet from me, placing it back in the canister.

"Sweetheart. We love you. We're your family. We only want what's best for you. But this?" She shakes her head. "This isn't it."

"I'm sorry. I really am. But this is what I want." The more I say it, the easier it becomes to agree with myself. This what I want. This. Theresa. She is what I want.

My mother shakes her head and I can tell she is beginning to give in. "But…Kelbo? Really? I love all three of you dearly but I think we all know that your sister is much more deserving of the title than he is." I laughed softly and nodded. My sister was an amazing wizard. The wizard competition was really always between the two of us, with Kelbo as an afterthought. I wanted to give it to her. I really had. But in the end, I did what was best for both of them.

"Kelbo can't do anything." I explain, "He isn't going to get into college. He isn't capable of running the sub station. If he doesn't have magic, he has nothing. He'll end up on the streets." My mother looks rather disappointed at this, but I can tell it's not news to her. I continue. "But Megan has her art. And she's good. Really good. She doesn't need magic to be good. And neither do I, Mom. I know this is hard to wrap your head around, but I'll be okay. You just need to trust me." She is about to speak, when we hear the kitchen door open and my father walks back in, heading towards our table. He looks determined. And angry. My mother turns to me.

"I give up. You can deal with your father on your own. I've had enough for one day." She stands up and walks quickly to the stairs, avoiding my father's eyes. But I don't want her to go. I don't want her to leave me alone with him.

"Mom, please!" She stops and faces me and I continue. "I'm sorry. But you can't just walk away."

"Watch me." She turns and is gone. My father's fist comes down, rattling the things on the table and knocking over the ketchup bottle so that it falls and then rolls of the edge of the table. He gestures towards the staircase my mother has disappeared up and yells in my face.

"Look what you've done. See that? It's because of you." I wince and pull away from him.

My chair squeaks against the floor as I scoot back. "Oh come on. That's not fair." I protest.

"It is fair. You can't just make decisions based on your own personal needs. It's not all about you. I can't believe you would do something so inconsiderate. I thought we raised you better than that. I spent 18 years of my life teaching you. You do not have the right to throw away everything I've given you."

I've had it. I'm sick of the yelling. And the lecturing. And the crying. And the fear.

No more lying. No more secrets.

"I met a girl." That takes him by surprise. I take advantage of his shock and continue, hoping to fit as many words in as I can before he retorts. "Her name is Theresa. We've been dating for almost three months now. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry that I upset Mom. I'm sorry I disappointed you by giving up my powers. But I'm not sorry that I did it. I want to marry her. Someday. That's why I did it." Whoa. I didn't mean to say that. I didn't mean to think it, either. Oops. And saying that is like sticking a mad bull with a sword. If this was a cartoon, I would see smoke coming out of my father's ears. He slams both of his hands down on the table and I jump.

"Unbelievable. You gave up a lifetime of wizard training…for a girl….who you barely know. Unbelievable." he yells as he shoves the table away, scattering its contents on the floor and leaving me sitting in a chair in front of him, with nothing between us. I stand up. I face him. I keep my fists behind me with no intent of using them.

"You know what else is unbelievable? The fact that you have no respect for my decisions. You know nothing about this girl. She could be wonderful for all you know. She could be polite and beautiful and sarcastic and a good cook and I might even love her. You say I have no right to give up my powers? Well you have no right to treat me like a project. Just because you want me to be some great wizard, doesn't mean that I want that for my life. I'm a legal adult. You have nothing on me. Nothing. At all. I didn't even have to show up here. I did you a courtesy by letting you know. But I didn't have to. And you know what? Screw you. I wish I hadn't." I turn around and head towards the front door of the sub shop. "I am so out of here."

"If you walk out that door, you won't be welcomed back in." he warns.

I make sure to slam it on my way out.


End file.
